


Papercuts

by cytheriafalas



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 01:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3432458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cytheriafalas/pseuds/cytheriafalas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eggsy gets shot while on a mission. Really short, written in a day. I never meant to get on this bandwagon. Also my British English sucks. I'm so American.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Papercuts

“Merlin, Galahad’s been hit!”

Eggsy tried to tell them that was total bunk, but he found he couldn’t get enough air to push the words out. Somewhere around him a faucet dripped, a slow, steady plinking of water into an ever-widening pool. He hadn’t seen any faucets in this wide hallway when he’d turned down it, gun drawn to fire at the men in black furs. He’d killed them all before he found himself eye-level with the floor.

“Can you get to him?”

“I’m almost there.”

Gathering his arms and legs beneath him, Eggsy tried to rise. He didn’t manage more than a handful of centimeters before dropping back to the ground with a wet splat. Eggsy didn’t even feel the impact. Somewhere in his mind the thought concerned him. Something about that was probably bad.

“I’m sending Gawain to you. Gawain, third right, then second left. You should be able to see them from there.”

“Yes, sir.”

A pair of shoes appeared in the graying edges of Eggsy’s vision.

“Galahad, can you hear me?”

His eyes slipped shut.

 

His entire upper torso burned with pain he’d never even imagined was possible. A groan slipped past his lips before he could cut it short. He had no idea where he was. He seemed to remember Lancelot in front of him, but that didn’t mean he’d been rescued.

A cool hand pressed to his forehead, brushing the hair out of his face. Eggsy heard a quiet beep, and warmth began to spread through his veins, chasing the pain away before it. Some sort of painkiller, the remaining analytical portion of his mind supplied.

“Sleep, Eggsy. You’re safe.”

 

He woke a second time to an ache in his chest. The pain was centered this time, a clear and burning wound, with dull pain radiating in circles around it. He managed to open his eyes and look blearily around. Even in the dark, the room was clearly the Kingsman infirmary. A man dozed in the chair beside the bed, his head fallen forward.

Figuring it to be Gawain or maybe Bors, Eggsy tried to ask how the mission had gone, but he lost the trail of his thoughts before he even began to form words.

A gentle hand brushed across his brow, cool and dry.

 

A hand peeled his eyelids open and shined a penlight in them. Eggsy groaned, throwing his right arm over his eyes to block out the painful light. Merlin _tsk_ ’ed and pulled his arm away.

“Ugh, why?”

“I need to see if you’ve suffered any brain damage along with your near death experience.”

With no other choice, Eggsy let Merlin examine him, reflexes, temperature, heart rate, respirations. Throughout it all, Merlin made quiet, disapproving sounds.

“Am I dying?” Eggsy asked when he stepped away.

“You will be fine,” Merlin said, typing something into his data pad. “Your fever still hasn’t gone down. I’m going to give you some more antipyretics and painkillers. This is your last for the day. Try to sleep.”

Eggsy couldn’t argue. Whatever Merlin pumped into sent him drifting off. A quiet voice in the doorway brought him round a little, but he couldn’t summon enough control to focus.

“He’s too fragile,” Merlin said. His voice was hard with the kind of rage Eggsy had never heard in him. “Are you going to risk him because of your own selfish desires?”

He couldn’t hear what the other person said, but Merlin set his tablet down with enough force that the bedside table rattled.

“Leave him be. I will bar you from the infirmary if I have to. Now go.”

 

The next time Eggsy woke up, Roxy was standing beside the bed, holding a wiggling JB in her arms. When his eyes opened, she smiled and set the dog at the foot of the bed. JB barked once, made two quick circles, and flopped down onto Eggsy’s legs.

“How are you feeling?”

“Sore,” Eggsy said, nodding toward his left shoulder. The white bandages bulked his shoulder up to nearly twice the width. “Did we get what we needed?”

“While you were getting shot for us, Gawain got everything we needed and uploaded Merlin’s virus.”

The information eased a knot that had been settled low in his stomach for so long he hadn’t even noticed it was there. “Good.”

Roxy took the seat at his bedside, the one the man had been sleeping in that night. She glanced around and then spoke in a low, rapid voice. “Listen, there’s something you should—”

“Lancelot, report to the briefing room,” Merlin’s voice announced through the loudspeakers.

Roxy let out a sharp breath, but she stood up, gathering JB in her arms. “Come on, JB. Let’s leave Eggsy be for now.”

The exchanged had left Eggsy tired. This weakness was abnormal, but a glance to the monitors at his left showed his temperature still elevated, 101 degrees. Eventually, the fever and exhaustion won him over.

 

It was a gentle and cool hand on his cheek that brought Eggsy around again.

“Your temperature’s come down,” a voice said, so familiar it made the pain from the bullet wound, or wounds, in his chest seem like papercuts compared to the sudden ache in his heart.

The room was dark, but the monitors gave him enough light to follow a dark sleeve up to a broad chest, then to a face that was perhaps a little more gaunt than he remembered, a scar painted across his right temple, leaving a trail of gray hair behind it.

“Why do I still hurt?” Eggsy asked.

Harry frowned, concern all over his face. “You were shot. Do you not remember?”

“No, I remember, but…” Eggsy trailed off, pushing himself up into a sitting position. Pain spiked through the bandaged side of his body. Definitely more than one bullet wound, then. A wave of nausea followed, and he had to close his eyes to fight it down. “You’re dead.”

“I am sorry about that.”

“I thought nothing was supposed to hurt anymore. After you died.”

Harry’s face fell and he pressed the back of his hand to Eggsy’s forehead. “You’re not dead, Eggsy. Nor am I. It was an unfortunate, but necessary, deception.”

Suddenly furious, Eggsy pushed Harry’s hand away, wincing at the dull echo of pain in his chest. “You absolute fucker.”

Harry gave him the look he’d seen so often during his training. “Language, please.”

Eggsy laughed, bewildered. He kicked his blankets off, swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and stood. He wavered for a few seconds, then regained his balance, waving off Harry’s hands as he tried to help.

“I thought you were dead. They gave me your name. Do you know how that feels? To hear them call me that and every time I looked for you? Even now, what, a year later? I still look for you.”

“No,” Harry said, his voice quiet. “I don’t know how that feels.”

“Shit. It feels like shit.”

Harry held out his hands, stepping toward him. “Please, listen to me.”

Eggsy shoved him away and felt something in his chest _pop_. The pain was so sharp it stole his breath, but he must have made some sound, because Harry’s arms wrapped around his waist, catching him before he fell.

“Merlin!”

Harry pulled Eggsy in tight to his chest and eased him to the ground. “It’s okay, Eggsy. It’s okay.”

“Galahad! What did you do?”

A laugh bubbled from Eggsy’s lips. He couldn’t tell whether Merlin was talking to him or Harry. That was funny. For some reason. He didn’t know why, but it was.

“Lift him,” Merlin ordered, clearing blankets from the bed and stripping the bandages from Eggsy’s shoulder. “I need to see.”

His back hit the bed and Eggsy lost the fight to maintain consciousness.

 

“Gettin’ real tired of wakin’ up in hospital beds,” Eggsy said.

“Eggsy,” Harry’s voice breathed, then those same cool hands cupped his cheeks. “Open your eyes, please.”

He did and the relieved breath Harry released made Eggsy’s stomach clench. He reached up to touch the scar on Harry’s right temple, feeling the twist and bend of the skin. “You’re not dead.”

Harry’s hand came up to cover his, and his eyes closed. “I truly am not.”

“I thought…” Eggsy cleared his throat, waiting for Harry to look at him again. “I wanted to… I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

“It’s okay.” Harry turned his head to the left, brushing his lips against Eggsy’s palm as he spoke. “I wanted to tell you, but after Arthur, there needed to be someone to ensure those of us left were loyal.”

The slide of his lips against Eggsy’s palm sent shivers down his spine. “Harry?”

“Hm?”

“Are you leaving?”

“Never you, never again.”

Eggsy threw his arms around Harry’s neck, ignoring the renewed pain in his arm, and pulled him down. Harry caught himself before he fell onto Eggsy’s injured shoulder, all without breaking the kiss. He reached up and eased Eggsy’s left arm back down to the bedside. Eggsy didn’t care. He could have been standing in front of an M16 and he wouldn’t have felt anything.

Dimly, Eggsy heard the door open, and then a surprised yelp. He started to pull away too see what was happening, but Harry followed him away and Eggsy decided it was just one more thing he didn’t care about. He was far more interested in Harry’s lips.

“Uh, I think… They’re… Preoccupied. Yes. Preoccupied. Let’s, uh, give them some space. Time. Time. Let’s give them some time. To work things out.”

“Work things out?” Merlin asked. “Roxy, move aside.”

The door slammed shut, and Harry’s lips curved into a smile. He pulled just far enough away to say, “Lancelot is an impressive woman.”

Eggsy laughed, then caught Harry’s lips again.


End file.
